Ali's forthcoming novel Brick Lane is an epic family saga told from the point of view of a young woman brought from Bangladesh to east London to marry. Publishers Doubleday have described it excitedly as 'Shades of The Death of Vishnu, possibly Zadie Smith and a dash of Arundhati Roy' which suggests that her greatest challenge may be to stake out a claim to define her own voice.

BibliographyBrick Lane (forthcoming, 2003)

The Observer says: "Unfair to call her the new Zadie Smith, though people will try", Geraldine Bedell

In their own words: "Everyone says my characters are weird. But to me they seem normal... I never wanted to be a girl writer. Girl writers don't get taken seriously. I don't take them seriously. I am a boyish writer."

The Observer says: "She is among the most prolific young writers around. She behaves like some malicious minor deity or demiurge. Her characters flap and scurry through the maze she creates for them without the least suspicion that the box they are in has a glass side, so that the effect is eerily pornographic." Lorna Sage

What others say: "Barker's writing is fast-paced and frantic to the point of mania, but it can also be slapdash and pointlessly kooky. It is sometimes extremely hard to understand what is going on." Alex Clark, The Guardian

"Barker is a brilliant miniaturist who stretches her talent on the rack, and ends up torturing the reader." Will Cohu, The Sunday Telegraph

Rachel Cusk

Winning the Whitbread first novel award for Saving Agnes at the age of just 26 shot Cusk to fame and into the pages of Vogue. Despite a certain amount of literary jealousy and an ongoing debate about her 'showy' style of writing, those "difficult" second and third novels were on the whole well-received. Her recent account of becoming a mother brought praise and vitriol in equal measure.

BibliographySaving Agnes (1993) The Temporary (1995) Country Life (1997) A Life's Work (2001)

In their own words: 'I couldn't care less about reviews, I care more about sales. If a book didn't sell well, I would feel that was the verdict of a greater mass I cared about more. There is a proliferation of lame literature and appalling standards - most writing is basically very shoddy indeed. I have no fear of the market-place - readers are sophisticated and they like what's good.'

"I'm sure people get tired of seeing my ugly mug plastered everywhere, but I think my friends are aware of the seriousness with which I made my choice to write and the sacrifices it took. I purchased that success completely."

The Observer says: Cusk aspires to Edith Wharton. At first, her style invites ridicule. Reading her prose is like watching someone who, though she possesses fingers, has mysteriously elected to perform all her tasks with unnecessarily trained, adroit feet... But gradually you get the hang of it: nothing can be performed unreflectingly. Life is all performance and potential snares. And gradually, against the odds, the novel takes hold. The style has to be overcome, mastered like a sly, new language. And because the book is about self-consciousness, its self-consciousness works. Kate Kellaway [on The Temporary]

What others say:

"As clever and entertaining as any novelist in the game... with laser-guided prose Ms Cusk bombards the reader mercilessly with every trick in the novelists' manual", Tibor Fischer [on A Country Life]

'A fable of control and its absence, The Country Life succeeds as comedy precisely because of the discord between Stella's impeccable narrative voice and the chaos of her experiences... Acutely observed, both witty and humorous, Cusk's rural ride is a fine entertainment, and one which packs a darker and subtler punch than it at first promises" Alex Clark, The Guardian [on A Country Life].

Peter Ho Davies

Having published two collections of short stories, he will publish his first novel this year. Having studied at Cambridge and in the United States, Ho Davies teaches creative writing at the University of Michigan.

BibliographyEqual love (2002) The Ugliest house in the world (2000)

In their own words: "Every time I've sold a story I've believed that it wasn't going to happen... I think I wrote the first story I published at 18 and had it rejected by hundreds of places before it was published at 21, and then I didn't sell another story until I was 27. That story was eventually anthologised in America and the editors at the publishing house asked me if I had any more work. I sent them some more stuff but was convinced it was far too British for them. The editor invited me to lunch and even at that point I thought we were going to talk about a novel, but out of the blue he made me an offer".

The Observer says: "His writing is distinctive, often funny, but shot through with loss" Jane Perry

What others say: "One of the most invigorating talents on the literary scene. If there's a better short story writer out there, I'd like to know who it is", Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday.

"Summary makes these stories sound grim. But they have a style so perfect that it does not draw attention to itself, and display such a likeable and ironic intelligence, that in the end your heart lifts in the midst of the unhappiness - like the paper sculptures floating skywards from the funeral pyre." Nicolette Jones, The Independent

Susan Elderkin

Has published only one novel - and Anna Shapiro's Observer review complained that "this first novel's first sentence could easily have qualified it for the 'novels we never finished reading' list". The sentence in question? 'When he moved to the mountains of Arizona and set up home amongst the giant saguaros of the Sonoran Desert, Theobald Moon developed the habit of getting up early in the morning, peeing in a glass, and knocking it back in a few quick gulps while it was still warm and fresh.' Yet Elderkin's oddball characters and imagination mark out an unusual and ambitious talent.

What others say: "Will we still be reading Zadie Smith in 20 years' time? I doubt it. My money would be on the still unknown Susan Elderkin, whose first novel was published with a few excellent reviews, but no razzmatazz. When I caught up with it I was as excited as if I'd been given an early Christmas present... Watch Elderkin. If there is any justice she will make her literary reputation and win the Booker in a few years' time." Bel Mooney, The Times.

"Richly imaginative... A strange and compelling blend of early Kingsolver and Bruno Schulz, this novel contains as many stinging surprises as the desert in which it is set". Lisa Darnell, The Guardian

"While there is much to admire in this novel - particularly the stylish prose and the clever structure - it is hard to become emotionally involved". Lucy Atkins, The Sunday Times

Philip Hensher

Made the Booker longlist for his fifth novel The Mulberry Empire and is also one of the most acute literary critics around.

In their own words: "I work in intense bursts and then spend long periods lying on the sofa, thinking."

The Observer says: "Even at his most perversely exuberant, he has never slackened his grip as a moralist, and reminds us here of the moral weakness at the core of his stories. Some of them strain for effect but the writing has the authority of an artist with no need to be looking over his shoulder. He has become one of the arresting foreground figures in any prospect of contemporary British fiction." Jonathan Keates

What others say: "Philip is an incredible reader. He'll read a 400-page novel in a morning. It can be rather crushing, because you say, 'I wonder if you've ever heard of... ' (some obscure German novel you're rather proud to have discovered) and he'll say, 'Of course, I've read it five times and twice in German." Allan Hollinghurst, novelist and friend of Hensher

"He is unlike anyone else writing today. In three novels, in less than five years, a distinctive and consistently appealing voice has emerged. His novels are full of mysteries to be uncovered, lies to collapse, and secrets to be dramatically revealed." Kassia Boddy, The Guardian

A.L. Kennedy

Kennedy has consistently produced acclaimed work since making the 1993 list and was always thought a certainty for the 2003 selection. Has also been a Booker Prize judge and is now teaching creative writing at the University of St Andrews. Believes that she is labelled as a "Scottish writer" because of a media assumption that writers should live in London.

In their own words: "There's a dichotomy between writers who write to explore themselves and writers who write to escape themselves. I'm a fugitive. It isn't heroic. I'm running away."

The Observer says: "Kennedy writes like an actress: the authorial voice changes constantly, she impersonates different styles with absolute confidence. Her stories are funny, philosophical, off-beat - about telepathy, love, serial killers and writing itself. She's at her best writing about anticipation of every kind, particularly sexual anticipation." Kate Kellaway

What others say: "It's refreshing to find a writer so minutely alert to the nuances of the sort of lives (young, impoverished, disaffected but unbowed) which have not been well served by much contemporary fiction." Jonathan Coe, novelist

"Her strength lies in defining new landscapes of love. In her stories men become the objects of desire, lust and tactile interest. The ease that Kennedy's heroines have in admitting their lust is something that delights the men." Natasha Walter, The Guardian

Hari Kunzru

After much publicity over a large advance, the critics were divided over the merits of his debut novel. But even those who found it over-showy and flawed believed that Kunzru has much future potential.

BibliographyThe Impressionist (2002)

In their own words: "People are comparing me with Zadie Smith. We've written very different books and have a very different approach to the written word, but I also think it's inevitable that because we are both youngish and mixed-race and have the same publisher, the hype... if I start protesting, it's an absurdity. I'll just coast along with it."

The Observer says: "There are bags of talent to be found in Hari Kunzru's rather hyped first novel, but they're compact in size and oddly distributed through the book. Perhaps packets of talent would be a more accurate description, packets or pockets, emptied out selectively over favoured minor characters, withheld from the here." Adam Mars Jones

What others say: "Kunzru is a stylish, intelligent writer who has found an ingenious mechanism by which to examine the age-old themes of race and colour." David Robson, The Sunday Telegraph

"He is certainly a hyperbolic writer, but one whose language is so fresh and clean that you almost forgive him the baroque excesses of his story." Alexander Linklater, Evening Standard

Toby Litt

Among the best-known authors on the list and an adherent to the New Puritan literary manifesto, both Corpsing and Deadkidsongs are being adapted as films.

In their own words: "As a child, I mostly watched television. So I've read the first three pages of hundreds of things I haven't finished. I found reasons for not reading things. Like being scared of Lord of the Flies because of the cover."

The Observer says: "I have not met him, but if he is the model for Conrad Redman, the narrator of his second novel Corpsing, then I would like to have dinner with him in Soho. We would eat puffball and plaice, asparagus and veal, and drink a 1992 Chardonnay." John Arlidge

What others say: "One of the most prolific of the newer generation of British novelists and young master of a scarily dynamic prose. Fortunately, Litt has a lot to show us - he is a really gifted storyteller who knows where to dig for interest." Philip Horne, The Guardian

Writing from the future, much influenced by his love affair with Japanese culture as well as computer games and William Gibson. Made the Booker shortlist for Number9dream.

BibliographyNumber 9 dream (2002) Ghostwritten (2000)

In their own words: "I went to Japan in 1994 intending to stay there for one or two years, but I'm still there. I feel completely at home here, though I realise that in the eyes of most Japanese I'm about as Japanese as George W Bush. It's definitely my home for the time being, but when you're 32, nothing is completely permanent."

The Observer says: "Mitchell writes a bravura, reckless prose which takes its cues from William Gibson and Jack Kerouac, and which takes aim at jejune realism. He is a wonderfully amphibious writer, happy in all manner of elements, and seems able to produce an endless parade of interesting characters." Robert Macfarlane

What others say: "Certainly a gifted and unusual writer who might one day produce a novel as "real" as a J.G. Ballard or a Thomas Pynchon." Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

"It might be disorientating, but it does not take long to realise that Mitchell has created a brilliant novel." Victoria Segal, The Times

Andrew O'Hagan

Having made the Booker shortlist in 1999, O'Hagan's forthcoming second novel has had to compete with his prolific output of non-fiction, journalism and criticism. A Scot at the very heart of the London literary and media scene, O'Hagan has drawn on his Ayrshire roots in both fiction and non-fiction, including his acclaimed meditation on Fred West, James Bulger and his own childhood in The Missing.

Bibliography Our Fathers (1999) The Missing (1995)

In their own words: "We were part of the generation that was referred to as Glasgow overspill. When we arrived, the local council had put red ribbons around the bath tubs, because for many people that was the first bath of their own they had ever had."

"As a kid, I found that good writing helped me to think that other worlds were possible. My family have never been that fond of books, the books in the house were just the ones that I brought in. I remember reading things like Anna Karenina and thinking it was fantastic and not understanding a word of it. I would be poncing down the main street with my copy under my arm at the age of ten or 11 and offering my view in the playground."

The Observer says: "Nominated for the Booker Prize, Our Fathers is a very Booker-ish novel, worthy and on the whole well-written, only the unkind might say a little over-written." Lucy Moore

"The details which make the reader feel rooted in each place are precisely what sharpen the contours of its opposite the unimaginable world of the missing. To the territory he has mapped out, O'Hagan is the perfect guide: eloquent, brave, yet not afraid to show his fear." Gaby Wood

What others say: "If no one wanted to write quirky, smart, brave books like him, then our literature would be much the poorer. He will, I am sure, write better, more focused, books whether they will be quite as ambitious is another matter." Nick Hornby

David Peace

The least 'literary' voice on the list, Peace has said that he never expected to publish his writings on the Yorkshire Ripper which grew out of an obsession with the dark side of the Yorkshire of his youth.

Bibliography

The four-part West Riding series on the Ripper case consists of novels titled 1974, 1977, 1980 and 1983.

In their own words: "Crime literature should be a perfect genre to explore these defining times, though the majority of British crime novels are a nonsense. Morse is a very safe world: you know he'll catch the bad guy at the end. How absurd to create this false picture of what reality is. Crime is not cosy, but brutal and destructive. It devastates people's lives."

"I can't sever my connection to Yorkshire. I was born there, I lived through these events. I couldn't write about anything else with the same honesty and compassion. I feel intense hate and love for Yorkshire. I can't seem to resolve those feelings."

The Observer says: David Peace would be horrified to have his work described as entertaining. His view is that since crime in reality affects people's lives in terrible ways, it shouldn't be treated lightly in crime fiction. And no one could say that his novels are light. It's black and moving but, pace Peace, it's also highly entertaining. But then crime fiction, at root, notwithstanding all the many claims for significance, is entertainment. Peter Guttridge

What others say: The pace is relentless, the violence gut-wrenching, the style staccato-plus and the morality bleak and forlorn, but Peace's voice is powerful and unique. This is compelling stuff that will leave no one indifferent. Maxim Jakubowski, The Guardian

Dan Rhodes

His first book Anthropology contained 101 stories often only a paragraph or two in length with a wicked, wry humour on relationships and their failings. After an acclaimed collection of short stories on similar themes, he will stretch his legs to novel length with a book centred around a mongrel dog, Timoleon Vieta, owned by an ageing queen in the Tuscan countryside.'

The Observer says: The bottom line is that love hurts. Not news in itself, perhaps, but Rhodes's stories blow through the cobwebs of a much-handled subject like fresh air... The simplicity of Rhodes's style might be reminiscent of folklore and fairy tales, but that doesn't stop him getting to the heart of the matter. Simon Beckett on Don't Tell me The Truth about Love

Ben Rice

Rice's short novella Pobby and Dingan - about a child's imaginary friends - has since been republished along with a New Yorker story Specks in the Sky. Among the lesser-known authors on the list, the Granta judges believe that he could prove one of the most important discoveries of the 2003 list.

Bibliography Pobby and Dingan/Specks in the Sky (2001)

The Observer says: "The arrival of Ben Rice is, I think, an important milestone in the literature of Australia. With Pobby and Dingan, he makes a strong claim to be a leader of the new generation. This novel marks one of those debuts that may well turn out to have been of the greatest significance". Robert McCrum

"Rice's characters are simply and vividly drawn, and his narratives, both related through the eyes of a child, are brilliantly paced. By turns, quirky, shocking, moving, funny, fantastical and all too real, these are beautifully crafted stories from an almost astonishingly gifted writer". Joanna Hunter

What others say: One of the most impressive young English novelists writing today. Rice's stories are odd, tender and beautifully written. The word 'spellbinding', so often misused, describes them perfectly. Carla McKay, Daily Mail

Rachel Seiffert

Seiffert's debut novel on the legacy of Nazi guilt made it all the way to the Booker shortlist in 2001. Born in Britain to German and Australian parents, she now lives in Berlin.

Bibliography The Dark Room (2001)

The Observer says: "Rachel Seiffert 's debut novel consists of three self-contained stories that are like fairy tales in their simplicity and clarity. But these tales are far from innocent. They narrate separate events, but are locked together in their systematic pursuit of the essence of Nazi guilt. In her Dark Room Rachel Seiffert develops bright and brilliant pictures of these lost days", Jonathan Heawood

What others say: "The Dark Room will be seized upon for school reading lists. It is intelligent, but not difficult it introduces all the right themes, asks the right questions, and is judicious without being judgmental ... But as a novel for adults, it is like a sculpture made of matchsticks. While you may marvel at its simplicity and style, you will yearn for a little more substance and a little less design.James Hopkin, The Guardian

Zadie Smith

The literary superstar of her generation after White Teeth was acclaimed as the debut of the new millennium. Her second novel, the Autograph Man received a mixed reception.

Bibliography White Teeth (2000) The Autograph Man (2002)

In their own words: "The advance [for White Teeth] did make my life a bit ridiculous really, it made me scared that I wasn't going to be able to finish the book, or that it wasn't going to be any good. But in the end, you just have to forget about it otherwise you'd never write a word. These things happen sometimes, these freak events in publishing. Next year it will happen to someone else.'

"I just feel a whole lot calmer, pathetically calm, in fact. That's what happens when you finish a book. When I think about White Teeth now, it just seems like an oddly distant thrill" [on finishing The Autograph Man]

The Observer says: "Her first novel is an audaciously assured contribution ... Her narrator is deeply self-conscious, so much so that one can almost hear the crisp echo of Salman Rushdie's footsteps. However, her wit, her breadth of vision and her ambition are of her own making. The plot is rich, at times dizzyingly so, but White Teeth squares up to the two questions which gnaw at the very roots of our modern condition: Who are we? Why are we here?" Caryl Philips

Adam Thirlwell

Only 25 - his first novel will be published this year. His one previous claim to literary fame is an essay "The Art of Fellatio", in the literary magazine Arete which found that modern literary blow jobs penned by the likes of Salman Rushdie and Michael Houllebecq did not measure up to the example set by James Joyce. Could he be the Will Self of his generation?

Bibliography Politics (forthcoming, 2003)

In their own words: "The good blow job is tricky for the writer. The stylistic dangers are dull mawkishness and boastful exaggeration."

In their own words: "Albert Camus said in the 1950s that the threat to writers today is that they become famous before the're read. I think that's an even greater risk in this sound-bite, MTV culture that we live in. but when you start with nothing in life and your first book becomes a success, how can you become such a spoilt brat as to take it too seriously?"

The Observer says: "His use of humour is only one example of his extraordinary grasp of the adolescent psyche. With great warmth and tenderness, he shows the processes of self-invention, the ways adolescents constantly test themselves and society by taking risks - chemical, emotional, sexual - to try and prepare for an unequal world that insists on seeing their age as purely one of transition." Sophie Harrison

What others say: "Four novels, three prizes, two films - not bad for a writer whose first book spent 18 months in a box in his bedroom." Melissa Denes, The Guardian

"One of the most talented, original and interesting voices around." Irvine Welsh

"Reading his novels can be a bit like wandering into a hall of mirrors: no matter how much you prepare yourself, you are always bewildered by what you encounter." Jason Cowley

Sarah Waters

Has made both the Whitbread and Booker shortlist with her modern reworking of Victorian fiction, though suffered for a time from her work seeming too racy for many critics. Andrew Davies' television adaptation of Tipping the Velvet makes her one of the best-known authors on the list.

In their own words: "Victorian writing doesn't have any explicit lesbian sex, but it does have a lot about gender and sexuality. There are strange, erotic situations and power dynamics, with innocence and corruption counterpointed."

The Observer says: "She dusts off Victorian melodrama and shows that there's life in the old props yet. Her sense of the past is acute, but never inhibits the free flow of invention or emotion. Writing historical fiction seems to be the mental equivalent of wearing period costume: as one of her characters has cause to learn, the unfamiliar experience of being laced up in a corset doesn't stop her from crying, it just 'makes the tears come strangely'." Adam Mars-Jones

What others say: "She gives us all the elements of melodrama and she does it supremely well. Her pacing is faultless." Lesley Garner, The Evening Standard

"Waters writes lesbian fiction, but those expecting an analysis of sexual oppression will be surprised at the wayward romance of her work." Will Cohu, The Daily Telegraph

Robert McLiam Wilson

A fierce satirist of Belfast life, Wilson's omission from the 1993 list led Bill Buford to write in the introduction to Granta's special issue of his "full-blown anger - with myself, with the others, with our failure: how could he have been left off?" Has long made a point of causing offence to all sides - Wilson attacked Nobel winner Seamus Heaney for his disengagement from politics, for "leaving out that unpoetic stuff, that very actual mess".

Bibliography Ripley Bogle, Manfred's Pain, Eureka Street (1996)

In their own words: "Here no comedy can be too broad because reality defeats it every time. Satire, of itself, exploits every comic opportunity. Satire is egalitarian. And taking the piss is much more effective than simple lamentation... It's not just the conviction that they are right which makes people dangerous, they must also lack a sense of humour. The lesson Joseph Heller learned with Catch 22 is that, if the joke becomes too much, hammer it more and you make a crucial breakthrough."

The Observer says: Wilson's particular strength is in his characterisations... Chuckie, who goes from poverty to wild riches in Ireland, then America, thanks to his crazed entrepreneurial vision, is one of the great comic capitalist creations, almost akin to Milo Minderbender in Catch 22 or William Gaddis's JR. Peter Guttridge

What others say: "Eureka Street is a very fine novel indeed, and Robert McLiam Wilson 's panoply of characters is unforgettable. What is most striking is McLiam Wilson's range: tragedy, comedy, realism, absurdism and refreshing political insight" Mary Loudon, The Times